an Epic adventure

In October-November I had the opportunity to travel to Verona, Wisconcin {3 times} for classes that will eventually lead to a certifican to give me a little leg up at work.  The first week was glorious!  Steak for dinner everyday, someone to make my bed in the morning, not having to check email for a week!  By the time the 3rd trip rolled around there was 3 inches of snow on the ground, the temperature was single digits, and I had aproximately eleventy-million unread emails.   Needless to say, I am happy to be done with the training classes and not sure how people travel regularly for a living!  I'm more of a standard routine kind of girl that likes to see my husband in person on a daily basis, cook my own meals, and drive my own car on roads that I am familiar with.   Though the travel was trying on my mentally and physically, the Epic campus is a remarkable place to see and puts a unique twist on casual work environment.  Besides the Treehouse meeting room, and 2 story spiral slide {because using stairs is hard?} here are some photos of the eclectic decor throughout campus.  It is a tradition that you MUST get your photo taken at the banana!

One big perk is that Wisconsin knows their beer, chocolate, and cheese.  How else are you going to stay warm when it is going to be NINE DEGREES outside?

give thanks!

As I wind down from a wonderful 5 day stay-cation, I believe it's time to pull the trigger and resurrect the ole' L3 blog!  So many things have happened in the past 2+ years and as time continues to fly by I want to have a place I can come to remember and share the laughter, heart breaks, milestones, miracles, and events that are life!  I hope to play a little catch up in future posts, but for tonight I want to reflect on the things I am thankful for after my first "big girl" Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving started by crashing the Tryptophan 13.1/10k/5k.  As police blocked traffic at the entrance of Fowler Park I quickly realize that there is a scheduled race on the Greenway.  I found a parking space about a mile from the entrance and jumped in with the half-marathoners and 10/5K-ers.  It was nice to get some extra cheers in the 40 degree cold, and a few awkward looks as I turned around to go back at a point that was NOT on the course map.  No records were broken on this particular morning but minimal walking occurred!  I was thankful to pound out my own 5K even though I did not get a t-shirt!  

Once home, I made a batch of my mom's famous "milk punch" {i.e. Bourbon Smoothie} and started working on the turkey.  This was the first time I have roasted a bird of any type for my first 'real' Thanksgiving in my first 'real' house using 'real' plates!  Beyone thankful for my mother-in-love for putting together the centerpiece for the table and helping prepare food for 20 even though there were 6 of us.  We stuffed ourselves silly and had 4, I repeat FOUR desserts to choose from as we watched football. {still only 6 people}

Friday was my first go at Black Friday!  The hubs and I went around 10 am and shared a kiss as we parted ways to fight the crowds.  A new Belk credit card and 4 trips later we should have enough clothes for our upcoming trip to Japan and the luggage to get it there!

Saturday was the Tech/GA game in Athens and I was happy my dad was able to get a ticket with some old friends of his!  Dad sort of stuck out sitting across the stadium in the middle of the front row with the Smiths!  Even though the bad guys won, in my eyes it was a fun day overall.  

All in all a successful kick off to the holiday season!  So many things to be thankful for.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Philippians 4:4